“Nothing stops the ever-churning Apple rumor mill,” Mike Schuster writes for Minyanville. “Already there are some rumors and theories as to what Apple will deliver in the next year. Some predict simple improvements to existing features, while other improvements could redefine what makes an iPhone an iPhone.

“Rumor has it that the upcoming iPhone 6 may be given an expansion to show off those Retina Displays. Prototypes sporting 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch screens are allegedly being tested, meaning one (or both!) could make its way to consumers’ hands,” Schuster writes. “Also, the next generation of the TouchID sensor may become a tiny trackpad, adding an extra layer to the iOS UI.”

“Rumor has it that the iPhone 6 will not only ditch the Gorilla Glass screen for the scratch-resistant sapphire coating found on the current TouchID [sic] sensor, but it will also be completely covered in the protective layer, making the entire iPhone case as scratch-proof as its screen,” Schuster writes. “Up until the release of the iPhone 4S, Apple maintained a summer release date for each new model. But since 2011, the iPhone has held an autumnal setting for its grand debut. That all might change, however, with the iPhone 6, as analyst speculation puts its release back into the mid-2014 summer season.”

So much absolute crap. So completely devoid of even a sliver of truth. It is difficult to tell where to start to debunk it

The “big screen” rumor has been recycled again and again (and again), One more time:Samedung makes thier phone big because they have to, they need the big batteries (because ‘roid phone are battery sucks) if they tried to make a phone the size of the iPhone 5 it would have a 2 hr batter life (and still perform at 1/3 the speed, as they do now)

Tiny touch sensor trackpad? Are you kidding, Im not even going to validate that vapid tripe with a rebuttal.

“analyst speculation” moves the release back to mid 2014 (summer) Oh you (Mike Schuster @ Minyanville) claim that analysts speculate that? Ah, well… then you know it’s going to happen! You can bet the house on it (actually the contrary would likely be a very prudent bet given those facts)

Sapphire is not a coating (even less so than gorilla glass) so “coating” anything isn’t happening.

And when Apple goes to a larger iPhone, is suddenly everyone using Android smartphones going to run out to buy large display iPhones. N-O, no! Android smartphones will still cost a lot less and consumers will continue to buy as many as they do now. Consumer all over the world just want cheap smartphones. I guess no one is able to figure that out. There are Android manufacturers who just don’t care how low they go in pricing as long as they sell something. A company with rigid book-balancing principles like Apple has simply can’t compete with that type of company.

Every year since Apple switched to the Autumn schedule, analysts have been predicting “an early mid-year release”. This is then followed by rumors of a “possible delay” and finally rumors of the obvious Autumn release.

Also, these analysts should at least spread rumors of how sapphire production is going to magically increase to 2-3 times beyond the gains made by the recent investment before suggesting it’s going to be used for the iPhone 6.

As it stands now, the future capacity gained by the recent investment would only result in enough production for 30-50 million displays in a year (at the current screen size).

I was actually thinking about this before reading this post.
The most obvious change would be to add another row and another column of icons to the home screen – Springboard.
That would require a screen size of 396 x 656 pixels.
The aspect ratio would fall between that of the original iPhone and the iPhone 5 which sounds good.
The diagonal size would become about 4.7 inches, which is highly plausible.
Such a display would add about one centimeter to both width and length of the phone, not too bad.

since Apple seems to be adopting a 16:9 screen ratio across its products, and since Apple sources its screens from the same manufacturers that supply all the other cell phones on the market, it would be more likely that Apple simply uses the extra screen real estate to enlarge its icons & keys, which is precisely what older users want.

Of course, that extra room could also be used to implement attractive, “likable”, lifelike icons that really used the Retina pixel density to its maximum advantage. And the extra room could allow for proper borders, button designs that were intuitive in their use, and so much more.

Or Ive could continue to make iOS the flat, washed-out, ugly, Windows tile-like crap that it now looks like, deleting more details in order to squeeze items closer together. Ive could use an even skinnier Helvetica font that makes it hard to read anything — as in the following example: can you identify all 5 different symbols and letters used here? (I1l)

Time for Apple to deliver what the users overwhelmingly prefer rather than what some designer thinks is the new hot trend in minimalist symbology.